Search for Seifer
by Chrisdalby
Summary: Seifer and Selphie have disappeared on what appeared to be a routine mission. Squall sends the SEED team but they will soon discover that they are in way over their heads. Please R&R, I'd like to get people's comments before I post the rest of the story.
1. Irvine's Doubt

Chapter 1 - Irvine's Doubt  
  
Ten human-shaped targets lay smoking on the floor. Irvine, his aim as unerring as ever, pressed the pad near him. Instantly, ten other targets snapped into position as he shouldered his sniper rifle.   
One down. 'That's for Selphie.' Two down. 'That's for her safe return.' Three down. 'That's for that idiot Squall.'  
  
Soon, ammo shells littered the floor around Irvine as he continued firing. He had not heard from his girlfriend for two weeks and did not know who to blame. 'Squall? He should not have sent her and Seifer on that mission without consulting all of us. But it's not his fault.'   
'Still can't get your mind off Selphie?' The hoarse voice behind him told Irvine who had spoken. 'What do you want, Zell?' The generally ice-cool Irvine had no time for Zell's stupid comments.   
  
He turned to face the blond punk and cast a doubtful eye on him. Irvine had met some people with bad dress sense in the past but Zell outdid them all, a hundred times over. Dressed in a rainbow-coloured Hawaiian-style shirt and his worn-out shorts, with his typical pretzel in hand, no-one would have thought Zell was the fearsome fighter he was.   
'Just trying to see how you are, pal.' said Zell, spraying Irvine with pretzel crumbs. Irvine brushed his face with the sleeve of his overcoat.   
'Listen, Dincht, if I needed help, I certainly wouldn't ask you. Why don't you go bother Squall or Cid? At least, they can stand you.'  
Zell frowned deeply, he had been trying to help and this was the thanks he got. 'You know what, Irv……'   
  
He was suddenly interrupted by Shu's voice coming over the tannoy. Her fluette tone rang out over the whole university campus. 'All senior SEED members are to rendez-vous with Squall Lionheart in the staff room.' Zell glared at Irvine, still munching on his pretzel as the tall sniper turned on his heels and headed out of the room. Zell waited a second before following. *One day, that stuck-up son of a Chocobo is gonna get what is coming to him.*  
  
Ten minutes later, Squall entered the staff room to see it filled with his senior staff. The layout of staff this morning, was as normal as ever. The girls as ever stuck close to Irvine, his playboy image, appealing greatly to Shu and surprisingly, Quistis. Understandably though, the usually chirpy Irvine was not his habitual self. Cid and his wife Edea, the sorceress, sat at the head of the table, each one side of Squall's chair where he would sit as leader of the SEED. Rinoa was chatting in a friendly manner with Zell, the two of them having been friends from the start. Four seats lay empty, Seifer and Selphie on their so-called mission but where were Fuujin and Raijin? Seifer's two cronies had been upset since their idol's disappearance but they had attended every meeting so far. Squall sat in his black leather chair, as all the eyes turned on him.  
  
'Right, I think you can all imagine why I called this meeting. Seifer and Selphie left two weeks ago for Norn and we still have no news. Now SEED rules state that operatives on mission must contact base every three days. I know Seifer was never one to go by the book but Selphie does.' he paused, seeing Irvine rise from his chair.   
'We all know the details, Squall. What we want to know is what are you gonna do about it?' Irvine's tone was so aggressive Cid and Edea both rounded on him. 'Mr Kinneas, please sit down. We are all worried for their safety.' said Cid in a hard tone. Looking over his glasses at the much taller Irvine, it was clear the older director of Balamb University would tolerate no nonsense. Irvine sat down, looking huffed, as Edea looked over the others, silently quelling any rebellious thoughts they might be having.  
  
'Right,' said Squall once again, 'let's go on to what you don't know. About three weeks ago, the Mayor of Norn contacted us, saying a terrorist organisation was letting off bombs all over town and he needed our help to track them down. He paid our fee up front and I sent Selphie and Seifer on as a vanguard, projecting to send more of a force later on. But since then we have had no news from either of them and all our contacts to communicate with Norn have gone unsuccessfully. So this is our plan of attack. We don't know what happened so I am gonna split the group into several teams, each with a different mission. Quistis.' He turned to face the tall blonde, her whip dangling at her side. 'I want you to take Irvine and Shu and go into Norn under cover. Pretend to be tourists and find out what you can. I expect reports from you every five hours.' He then turned to face the door as Fuujin and Raijin entered. 'Your timing is good. You two, I'm gonna take with me and Rinoa. We're going as an official SEED delegation to Norn. I don't expect any trouble but for crying out loud, arm yourselves well and put in a few hours in the training chamber. Zell, I want you to stay back here and take charge of operations while I'm gone.' 'WHAT????' Zell punched the table angrily. He knew his protests would make no difference.   
  
Ignoring his moody friend, Squall opened his arms out wide. 'Right, everybody move out.' As the group got up to leave the room, Edea called out to Fuujin and Raijin. 'Oh, you two late birds. Before we go, I want you to run round the campus fifty times. Maybe it'll teach you some punctuality.' Squall nodded affirmatively as Fuujin's pale face blanched even more, making her look almost dead.   
  
In the corridor, Squall caught up to Quistis. 'Quistis, I've put you in charge of this group for your leadership experience. Irvine is not himself right now and I need you to try and calm him down. He'll only get himself killed but I can't leave him here. He'd follow us anyway. He cares too much about Selphie.' Quistis nodded and walked away, leaving Squall alone to mull over his thoughts.   



	2. Awakening and Departure

Chapter 2 - Awakening and Departure  
  
'That hurt.' Selphie groaned as she opened her eyes. She felt her head and the rising lump growing on the back of it. 'Brutes.' She groped around her trying to feel where she was. It was so oppressively dark, she could not see any better with her eyes open. Her yellow dress was torn in several places and her exposed shoulder showed a nasty-looking bruise.  
  
She stood up painfully, stretching her limbs. If her captors thought they had removed all danger by taking away her nunchuks, they were wrong. She walked towards the wall and felt her way round the room but no door was apparent. *Where the hell am I?* As her pupils dilated to adapt to her surroundings, she caught  
sight of a faint beam of light shining on her foot. Looking up, she saw a grate at about fifteen feet above her head through which the light was coming. 'Well, that explains how I got down here.' She called up but the only answer she received was the sound of her own voice, echoing off the walls of the pit.   
  
'Damn them all to Shiva. How am I ever gonna get out of here?' Suddenly, Selphie froze where she was standing. Had she heard something behind her? A second later, her fears were confirmed as her ears picked up a faint breathing sound.   
'Who's there?' she called despairingly into the darkness. The breathing was getting closer. Selphie pulled two total back flips, landing near the wall in a defensive position. With the surrounding darkness, she was in no situation to fight off an attacker but she refused to give up. Selphie's jaw tightened, her teeth gnashing against each other as her whole body quivered in anticipation. The breathing was getting closer……….  
  
*****  
  
Fuujin caught her breath as she finished her 35th lap round the campus. She was soon aware of Raijin's muscular frame next to her, bent almost double, trying to regain his breath. For all his body-building training and weight-lifting, Fuujin's closest friend had far less endurance than she did. She paused for a second, eyeing her tired friend as he halted gratefully, sucking in air as if clinging on to his very life.   
'OWW!' Raijin yelled out as Fuujin's gloved hand caught him a glancing blow off the side of his head. 'What did you do that for?'  
'You wimp!' Fuujin's good eye was ablaze with fury. 'You call yourself a SEED and you can't even keep up with me on a little jog.' Exasperated and annoyed, Fuujin took off once more, leaving the tall black man to eat her dust.  
  
In the next twenty minutes, Fuujin had completed her punishment and was mopping the sweat off her brow with a towel as Raijin pulled up beside her, looking distinctly worse for wear. She tossed him a bottle of water which he swigged at gratefully. After quenching his thirst, he walked up to her and placed a heavy hand on her shoulder.  
'Listen, Fuu, I was just thinking. Maybe we ought to tell Squall and the others about the message we received from Seifer.'   
Fuujin gasped audibly before whirling round to face him.  
'Are you totally insane? The others are prejudiced enough with Seifer as it is. How do you think they'll feel if they learn what he's done this time? Somehow, I don't think that pretty-boy Irvine or any of them would hesitate to kill him this time. Plus, we're not even sure if Seifer meant what he said in that message.' The gray-haired girl's cheeks were red with fury.  
Battered by Fuujin's aggressive tongue, Raijin shut up and got up to walk back to the main entrance of the university. Before he had walked ten paces, he heard Shu's voice calling to him from above. 'Oh, Raijin, that was only 47 laps.' He looked up to see the pretty pilot looking down at him and making signals for him to keep running.   
  
*****  
'Listen, Squall, you have to try and take your mind off this whole situation until we get to Norn.' Squall took the cup of tea Rinoa had made him and placed it on the table beside him. Without looking up, he continued to polish his gunblade, not even replying to Rinoa's remark. The short brunette sat beside him, patting her dog, Angelo, as he lay next to her feet.  
'Honey, the team is looking up to you as their leader. We've been through worse things than this.' As she placed her hand on his arm, Squall leapt up, throwing his gunblade against the wall and turning to face his girlfriend.  
'I know! I know we've been through worse but at the moment, I have two of our best operatives missing through my fault. So you'll understand why keeping calm is not my priority.'  
Infuriated at Squall's tone, Rinoa slapped him right across the face, leaving a large red hand mark.  
'Shut up, Squall Lionheart, and get over yourself. Moaning and whining is not gonna help Selphie or Seifer. You've gotta take action. All the others must be about ready to leave so grab your bags and meet us at the main gate.' Not giving Squall a chance to respond, Rinoa shouldered her backpack and marched out, Angelo barking at her side.   
  
Rinoa arrived at the main gate to be greeted by the sight of the team's two vehicles being loaded by SEED operatives. Raijin was on the roof of the car, busily tying packs firmly down while Fuujin and Shu were tinkering in the engine. The truck seemed to be ready to go with Irvine leaning against the side of it, impatiently waiting for the order to depart.   
Quistis strode over to Rinoa, flashing a big smile at her friend and former rival for Squall's affections.   
'Everybody's ready to go. We're only waiting for Squall.'  
Rinoa rolled her eyes at the mention of her stubborn companion. Looking up at the taller and slimmer Quistis, she nodded towards Irvine.  
'You sure you'll be able to handle him, Quistis? He still looks pretty annoyed.'  
Both women looked at Irvine, ignoring everybody around him.   
'I'm worried about him, Rin. I've never seen him like this. He's spent his entire time since the meeting yesterday morning doing target practice in the Training Grounds.'   
A crease ran across Rinoa's forehead as she mulled over Irvine's behaviour. She knew the sniper had always had a soft spot for her so she decided to try her luck. She tugged at her blue dress and casually approached the mulling Irvine.  
'Hi, Irvine, excited about the mission?'  
Munching on a stalk of grass, Irvine turned his stare onto the gorgeous girl next to him. For probably the first time ever, his eyes did not light up when looking at Rinoa.  
'Rinoa, listen to me. I know you're here to try and cheer me up. But I can tell you right now that I'm in no mood to be submitted to your chirpiness. If you try, I'll only end up offending you so why don't you both save us a lot of time and bother and just go about your business?'  
He turned away from Rinoa, and opening the door to the truck, slid inside, resting his rifle on his lap.  
  
As the final preparations for departure were almost completed, Squall strode quickly down the stairs to join the others, followed by Edea and Zell. He nodded grimly at Raijin who was indicating that all was ready. Squall then turned to face Zell. 'Zell, I know you're upset at me leaving you behind but I need somebody I can trust to keep an eye on things here.'  
Zell, visibly upset, kept his true feelings under wraps and merely nodded. The SEED leader then took Edea aside. 'Listen, governess, I'm also trusting that you and Cid will keep Zell in line.' Edea smiled and placed a reassuring hand on Squall's chest. 'Don't worry, everything will be fine.'  
  
Satisfied at last, Squall clambered into the shotgun position of the car.'Alright, everybody. Let's go! Quistis, move your people out.'  
The two engines revved quickly as they took off, spraying an infuriated Zell from head-to-toe in sand.   



	3. Norn At Last

Chapter 3: Norn At Last  
  
  
The SEED car trundled up to the top of the hill overlooking Norn. As Squall and his team got out of their vehicle, a grim spectacle awaited them.  
'What the hell happened here?' Fuujin was half-screaming as they faced the destroyed town. The once proud walls and turrets of Norn now lay in smoke and ashes, a city that it had taken 600 years to build now lay in ruins and desolation. Even more sickening were the row of disembodied heads attached to every spike off the outer wall, mysteriously left almost intact.   
The grey-haired mercenary retched at the scene, her heart almost bursting with worry for her hero, Seifer.   
'SEIFERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Fuujin's voice told of her internal agony, fear and pain as Rinoa wrapped a soothing arm around her.   
Squall, seeing his squad fall apart, had to act. 'Alright, we're going in. Everybody, pull out your weapons and charge up your materia.'   
He heard a familiar click as Rinoa loaded her discus.   
  
They entered the city quietly, dominated by the tall buildings all dilapidated. Squall, wanting to maintain a silent approach, gestured for Raijin to scout ahead. Raijin had barely turned the next corner when a roar was heard.  
'GUYS!!! HELP!!!'  
Squall gripped his gunblade as he ran to where Raijin was standing. His call for help had been very reasonable. Raijin was twirling his staff, nervously facing four long, black, Spiderosses. Their twisted grins gave them an almost ghoulish look and their long fingers seemed to beckon to them. Squall positioned himself to Raijin's left and circled behind the enemy. 'Watch out, Rai, one touch from their nails and you're a goner.'   
  
Suddenly, the Spiderosses attacked, two lashing out at Raijin and two at Squall. Squall acted on instinct, ducking under the combined attack on him and lifting his gunblade, violently scythed through the midsection of one of them and landing on his feet. As the Spideross screamed as it died, Squall shot a quick look at Raijin. His metal-tipped staff had caught one on the head, knocking it out but the other was flailing dangerously near Raijin's face, his staff a blur as he did his best to block all the Spideross' attacks.   
'YEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' Squall heard his aggressor's wail as it almost swam through the air, trying to scratch his face. Squall blocked both of his enemy's swipes and slashed through the air, his gunblade catching his opponent on the head. He pulled the trigger as he felt it connect, and saw it go limp. The last Spideross had been felled by Rinoa as she rounded the corner and the team collected their breath.  
  
'Guys, this is too strange. Those creatures were minions of Edea when she turned to evil but I thought they'd all been destroyed.' muttered Raijin, irate at having been caught off guard.  
  
A scrabbling noise behind them made the party whirl around, expecting another attack. Fuujin, despite having only one good eye, caught sight of a blur of movement. 'Over there. Look, two kids.' Indeed, two kids who appeared to have been spying on them were frantically trying to scrabble up the remnant of what had been a small house.   
'Hey, kids, wait. We won't hurt you.' Rinoa's call had no effect as the children continued to climb, seemingly petrified at the fighters below them.   
  
Rinoa closed her eyes for a second before emitting a piercing whistle. The padding of feet behind them indicated Angelo's arrival. 'Angelo, round up those children. But don't hurt them. Just bring them to us.'  
Angelo took off like a bullet, overtaking the kids in a matter of seconds and hauling them onto his back. As he dropped them lightly in front of his mistress, Squall knelt down to be on eye-level with them. The boy must have been about eight, the girl about five clutching a small Chocobo toy to her chest.  
'Listen, children, we won't hurt you. We're agents of SEED….UHF!'  
Squall was interrupted mid-sentence by a kick to the face by the boy, standing in front of the girl as if to protect her.   
'You baddies go away. It was you who did this.'  
A puzzled look came over Rinoa's face as Fuujin laughed out loud at a mere child attacking the leader of SEED.  
'What do you mean? We just got here.'  
'That man said you were from SEED.' said the boy, pointing at Squall. 'Well, the bad man who killed everyone said he was from SEED and that more like him would come to hurt us.'   
  
The four friends looked at each other, aghast at this news. Rinoa was the first to recover from the shock as she spoke again.  
'Could you describe him to us, please?'  
The little girl moved from behind her brother's shoulder.   
'Yes, he was t-tall with short b-bl-blond hair and a big scar on his face. He killed everyone with his g-g-gunsword.'  
Squall's eyebrows almost met his hair as Fuujin and Raijin's faces contorted with horror.  
'No, n-not Seifer.' whined Fuujin as she collapsed to the ground, sobbing quietly. Raijin remained silent, trying to hide his pain.  
Rinoa and Squall's eyes met as each looked to the other for comfort.  
'No, I refuse to believe Seifer has turned back to evil again. He had changed so much.' Squall almost shouted as he punched the nearest wall.   
  
Just above the group, a tall grey-haired man stood watching them. As he turned away, a wry smile appeared on one corner of his mouth.   
'Fools, they're walking right into the trap.'  



End file.
